Hidden Depths
by klipdoctor
Summary: A one-shot set in my Captain's Log universe describing Molly's return to Pirbright, where she did her basic training, to meet her trainers.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Our Girl. Everything you recognise was created by Tony Grounds and is owned by the BBC.**

**This one-shot is set in the Captain's Log universe.**

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><p><strong><span>Hidden Depths<span>**

"You're not going to _believe_ this!"

Corporal Matthew Geddings was relaxing at his desk, enjoying a well-deserved cup of tea after his section's pretty abysmal showing on the latest cross-country run. Well, he supposed, it wasn't _toooo_ bad, but four weeks into the course they should be supporting one another more, and some of them were still not fit enough. He had just resolved to go in and give them another good bollocking when Sergeant Phil Adams burst through the door of the NCOs' office brandishing a newspaper.

"Eh?" he let out a startled exclamation at the sudden interruption but then, seeing it was the sergeant, he straightened up, "What's up Sarge?"

The sergeant turned to face him and he was surprised by the shock on the man's face. Normally Sergeant Adams was pretty unflappable so this news must be pretty momentous. "This is the Operational Honours and Awards list for Herrick 19. There's one of your former cadets on it. And you're not going to _believe_ who it is!" the Sergeant told him, his Scots accent as broad as Geddings had ever heard it, indicating very strong emotion.

"Who?" wondered the Corporal, mentally running through everyone he'd graduated over the past few years. Since Pirbright didn't offer phase 1 training for frontline units (ie infantry or armour), and he had only been here for three years, it was pretty impressive to get a graduate with a mention on the Awards list.

"There!" said the sergeant, pointing at the list.

Geddings leaned over, and read the small text, "Private Molly DAWES, Royal Army Medical Corps…no way!" But then he looked closer at the title, "Hold on, a Military Cross? No way! What did that idiot do now?"

The sergeant replied, "I don't know; I'm trying to get hold of the medal citation, but a Military Cross – wow!"

Geddings sometimes wondered why he did this job. He could have had a section command in a frontline unit but instead he was stuck training kids. But it was something he seemed to be good at. He had served two tours in Afghanistan, yet here he was. This job was repetitive and could be soul destroying at times, but the name written on that list was the major reason why he didn't ask for a transfer. It felt really special when you took some complete no-hope, no-confidence girl like Molly Dawes had been and made them into a diamond, "I told you she was special, didn't I Sarge?"

"You did, but I didn't believe you. Who would have thunk it? She couldn't even pick up her pack when she first came here!"

"But she damn well could by the time she finished, Sarge." He thought about the chat he'd had with Dawes on the morning of the adventure trip and wondered whether that had been the turning point. "Hey, does Soph know?" Corporal Sophie Richards, his counterpart, was busy running a quarters inspection for their latest group of recruits.

Receiving a negative reply, he clambered to his feet, put his beret on and headed out to find her. Despite the way that she shouted and harried their recruits, the military policewoman was a consummate professional and was absolutely committed to their job of turning civilians into the soldiers of tomorrow. He knew she would be bowled over by the news of Dawes' award.

- OG - OG - OG - OG -

He was right; Sophie had been delighted to hear about Dawes' MC. None of the recruits that they'd trained together over the past 18 months would recognise the grin that was plastered on her face, although her contemporaries were pretty familiar with it. It was part of their job to yell at and be harsh to the recruits, but Sophie wasn't like that away from the job. Actually she was one of the warmest, most smiley people he knew in the military.

As they walked into the NCO's office that afternoon, after giving the girls a right bollocking for their pretty abysmal cross country performance, Sergeant Adams was waiting for them. "Here, read this," he suggested, pointing to a printout on the desk, "it'll blow your mind."

Realising that it must be Dawes' citation, both Geddings and Richards leaned over the desk to read the piece of paper.

_"At just 19 years of age and having only recently completed her specialist training, Private Molly Dawes was deployed as a Combat Medical Technician at a Forward Operating Base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. On Wednesday 30 October 2013, after less than a week in theatre, her section was deployed in support of the Afghan National Army to a Command Post in the mountain area._

_A fellow soldier wandered into a minefield and was shot by a sniper. Without thought or care for her personal safety, Private Dawes volunteered to go and treat him. She crawled across a minefield using only her combat knife to detect mines, but close to her goal she unfortunately triggered one. She was disorientated and received minor injuries, but despite this she proceeded to treat her comrade Private Dylan Smith, saving his life in the process. She then insisted on accompanying him as he was winched into the rescue helicopter despite the very real risk of sniper fire, since she needed to keep administering pressure to avoid him bleeding to death. She deliberately ignored the danger to her own life in order to administer life-saving first aid._

_Private Dawes' actions on 30 October were extremely courageous and outstandingly brave and have earned her the Military Cross for actions which directly resulted in the life of a fellow soldier being saved."_

Geddings was unable to stop the tears of admiration coming to his eyes, "Wow….just wow."

Adams, who had also served two tours in Afghanistan, and one in Iraq, and had seen the elephant on a number of occasions, was clearly extremely impressed, "To think that that mouthy little gobshite did this is just amazing. What's more, one of my mates knows her section leader, Kinders, and he told me he found out that at the end of her tour she also saved two guys' lives under fire and at the same time potted an insurgent leader with a pistol!"

"No way!" exclaimed Sophie.

"Straight up! _And_, she's just signed up for another tour training Afghan medics – leaves on the 20th!"

"Bloody Hell! I thought she had the potential to be a damn good medic, but I didn't see this coming." said Geddings, "Don't you think it would be really nice to get her back here to talk to the kids? I'd like to buy her a drink as well."

"I think we'd all like to buy her a drink, Matt" said Adams, "Why don't you see if you can get in touch with her and we'll see if we can book something in for when she gets back."

- OG - OG - OG - OG -

"I heard from Dawes," Corporal Geddings told Sergeant Adams as he stomped into the NCO's room. He had just finished flushing out two lads from three section as unfit for service and it was always tough to crush their dreams. But at least Matt had something to put him in a better mood. It had taken quite a while to get hold of Dawes, not helped by the fact that she was in Kabul for much of the time and didn't have access to e-mail regularly. It was November now, and they had had to wait until she got back from her second tour to organise something with her.

"And?" he asked.

"She's just completed the PNCO course and she starts her new job with 4th Armoured Medical on the 21st. She reckons it'll be pretty tough for the first week, but she said she could come around some time in December or alternatively she said she is pretty free in January. She told me she's living out with her boyfriend, but in Aldershot, so it wouldn't be difficult for her to get over and for us to go out for a drink. What do you think, Sarge?"

"Let's shoot for January, Matt. We should give her time to settle into her new job. I'll ask the Boss to send through a request to her regiment and we'll set up a date. Did she seem OK?"

"Yeah Sarge, pretty knackered after the PNCO course, but who isn't? She said she let her fitness go a bit when she was on tour and paid for it. But she still passed. She told me she's catching me up. Cheeky cow!"

"And she's got a boyfriend. Disappointed Matt?" He grinned at Geddings.

"Where did that rumour come from? I told all you bastards she's not my type!" Corporal Geddings glared at him.

"Whatever…"

- OG - OG - OG - OG -

"Well well, Lance Corporal Dawes. Welcome back to Pirbright." It was 14.30 and Dawes had arrived right on time. He had met her on the parade ground, as they had agreed. She was set to address the cadets at 15.30, meet some of the groups and then they had arranged that she would meet up with some of the NCOs for a drink in Aldershot at 17.30. They had agreed that partners would come along so that Molly's boyfriend could join them; apparently he was ex-Army. Sophie's husband was coming and so was Matt's girlfriend and Phil Adams' wife. Dawes, who was dressed in her utilities, had braced to attention, but he reached out to shake her hand.

"Corporal Geddings, good to see you again," she answered, hesitating only briefly before shaking his hand.

"I think you can call me Matt now, as long as we're away from the muppets!" he told her, "You look well," he observed, pleased that she looked so well, particularly after two tours to Afghanistan.

"Well, Army life seems to be suitin' me!" she grinned.

"I'm pleased," he told her, and then facing her he continued seriously, "Before we go in, I wanted to thank you Molly for what you've done and say how proud we all are of what you've accomplished."

She turned bright red and he thought she might faint, "I was only doin' my job," she told him, "but I wanted to thank for your advice. All of it was useful and I wish I'd listened more to some of it."

He looked at her with raised eyebrows, "It sounds like there's a story in there?"

"First impressions," she told him, "And my big fat gob!"

"Ah," he smiled. "Well that tends to be a lesson you only learn by experience, however many times you're told."

"Ere," she said, clearly trying to change the subject, "D'you still do your mother, father, boyfriend, God speech? Cos that really cracked me up!"

He tried to draw himself up and look down his nose at her, "I'll have you know that that speech works very well, except on gobby Essex girls obviously!"

"Oi, who are you callin' an Essex girl?! I'm from London, me. That's fightin' talk where I come from mate!" she told him.

"Well, far be it for me to insult our guest of honour, so shall we head in?" he offered.

- OG - OG - OG - OG -

"I've got to say Molly, you're a natural." Coming from Sergeant Adams, that was quite a compliment. It was 18.30 and they were all firmly ensconced at a table in the corner of the Greyhound pub in Ash, just outside Aldershot. So far the party included Adams, Geddings, Dawes and Richards as they hadn't been joined by any of their partners yet.

"Thanks sarge, I really appreciate it." Molly replied, "but I'm sure you say that to all your former recruits!"

"No Molly, we're totally serious," assured Geddings, "you totally had them eating out of your hand." And it was true, too. They had brought all the training groups currently at Pirbright together for Molly's talk. Sergeant Adams had introduced her, telling the kids that Molly had won the Military Cross for saving lives under fire. That had certainly concentrated their attention, and when Molly had told them, in her own forthright fashion that she had been standing where they were less than two years ago, that had really focused some minds. She had talked a bit about her experiences on her first tour, including treating her friends under fire, interacting with the Afghan people, and the beauty of the country, and she had touched on her second tour as well as her experiences of the Army outside operational deployments, and what they could expect. The talk had been brilliantly received, so much that the Camp Commander (who had been hiding at the back) had talked with the Sarge afterwards about making it a regular part of the course. Afterwards they had taken her round the individual groups of cadets for small group Q&A and Molly's personality had shone out. All of the cadets she had met had been really impressed and he had noticed several of his own problem kids sit up and take notice.

"Well, it's nice of you to say," she told them, just as her mobile rung. "Excuse me," she told them, pulling it out and speaking into it, "Yeah," she told whoever was calling, "Are you sure? Why don't we just get a taxi? Yeah, OK. See you in five. Cheers, Boss."

She looked at them, "Charles'll be here in 5-10 minutes," she told them as they all stared at her.

"Erm Molly, is there something you want to tell us?" asked Geddings, "I mean you told me your boyfriend was ex-Army…"

"Oh, you mean like how I'm goin' out with my ex-CO?" she asked, giggling at their faces, "Don't worry. We didn't get together until after we got back from tour, so everything was above board. He's in the Army reserve, but he's not active any more. He works with the International Red Cross."

"Bloody hell Molly," breathed Sophie, "You don't do things by halves, do you?"

She smiled, "Well, where's the fun in that Corp?"

- OG - OG - OG - OG -

Matt Geddings reflected on a great evening. He had been a bit worried when he found out that Molly's boyfriend was an officer, but he supposed knowing Molly he shouldn't have been. Captain James had fitted in really well with their little group and they had found out that he and the Captain had actually been deployed within touching distance of each other during Herrick 13 and Charles knew several of Phil Adams' friends too. He also provided a good bridge into the non-military members of the group. Matt's girlfriend Nina often complained about going to military get togethers. As a vet she had very few common frames of reference with the military, but she had got on like a house on fire with Molly and Charles.

Sophie's husband, Dan, was also an MP, so that was no problem, and Phil's wife, Lorna, was used to these sort of affairs, having been married to him for 10 years, but even she had taken a more active part in the conversations than he had ever seen at one of these do's. Really, it had been a great night. Each of them had been trying to find out a bit more about Molly's relationship with Charles and they had pried lose some interesting nuggets throughout the night, most notably that Charles was one of the soldiers whose life Molly had saved under fire at the end of her tour. Charles understandably told them that Molly was "the nuts" as a medic, causing Molly to blush. He thought there might be another story in there.

He thought that Molly and Charles were a great couple. To think of gobshite Molly Dawes with an obviously public school officer was really funny, but they obviously complemented each other really well. He was really supportive of her, but also teased her mercilessly as well. She gave as good as she got and their banter was really funny.

As the gathering broke up, Phil had broached the possibility of Molly coming to speak again, and she hadn't refused, but had noted that she was on a lot of training courses at the moment and it would have to fit around them. Nina and Molly had been thick as thieves and had already exchanged mobile numbers and were planning to meet for a coffee next week. Charles took one look at that and told him, "I think you and I will be seeing a lot more of each other in the future, Matt!" he agreed, but it shouldn't be a hardship. He and Charles had discovered a shared love of Rugby (although Charles had the rank bad taste to support Bath, but then he was a poxy Southerner, Matt supposed) and had already talked about meeting up to watch one of the Six Nations matches, so if their other halves got on well, that was only a positive. He was a bit concerned about the piss taking he was going to get from the guys about the fact that his girlfriend and his supposed girlfriend got on so well. He had already seen Phil's cheeky smirk!

As Molly and Charles made to get into their taxi to head home, Molly had paused and told all of them, "Thanks very much for not giving up on me and for training me so well. Your training and advice has helped to keep me alive."

Sophie had answered for all of them, "No thank _you_, Molly. Thank you for listening to us, and thank you for keeping going, and thank you for honouring us with your actions, and mostly thanks for coming back alive." They had all hugged each other and gone their separate ways.

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><p><strong>AN 1 This story starts in June 2014. I've had to muck around with the dates a bit because the Operational Honours and Awards lists are published in March and October but that just wouldn't work in the context of this story.**

**A/N 2 Operation Herrick is the codename under which all British operations in Afghanistan have been conducted since 2002. It is generally split into time periods, represented by numbers, so in Episode 1 when Jackie says that Smurf's brother was killed on Herrick 15, she means the 6 month period from October 2011 to March 2012. I calculate that Molly's deployment was during Herrick 19 from October 2013.**

**A/N 3 The medal citation borrows some phraseology from that of Michelle Norris, the first female recipient of the Military Cross in Iraq. I thoroughly recommend a read of her story and of the stories of the other three female medics who have been awarded the Military Cross (L/Cpl Kylie Watson (Swanepoel), L/Cpl Sarah Bushbye and Able Seaman Kate Nesbitt) – they are quite frankly amazing and very very humbling. You can find them with a quick search on the internet.**

**A/N 4 I have used the date for the MC incident based on the timing I used in Captain's Log.**

**A/N 5 Corporal Geddings doesn't have a first name in the single film from 2013, but I've named him in honour of the actor who played him, Matthew McNulty.**


End file.
